


saint honesty

by sureasthesea



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Cheating, M/M, Misunderstandings, also fuck andre from eddie's work all my homies hate andre from eddie's work, but they're in love! everything is fine!, i love them, it's MY fic and they're married if i WANT them to be!, not really Eddie is just a chronic catastrophiser, they are in love and they communicate and it's all very healthy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:14:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24288745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sureasthesea/pseuds/sureasthesea
Summary: Richie had a face like an open book. He didn’t know how to cover up who he was or stay inside his shell. It was one of the things Eddie loved the most about him, and it was why he knew the second he stepped out of the worst storm LA had seen in years and into their apartment that something wasn’t right.Because Richie’s coat wasn’t on the hook.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 8
Kudos: 125





	saint honesty

**Author's Note:**

> bitches be like *writes for the first time since 2017* it's me i'm bitches.
> 
> this fic was mostly inspired by the song 'saint honesty' by sara bareilles, which you will notice is also the title of the fic! would ya look at that. i'd recommend listening to the song at any time because it is a phenomenal work of songwriting genius, but especially while reading this fic. it's The Vibes, bro.

After two years of marriage, Eddie knew when something was up with Richie. He’d known how to tell really for their whole lives when he was upset or uncomfortable or trying to hide. It wasn’t hard. Richie had a face like an open book. He didn’t know how to cover up who he was or stay inside his shell. It was one of the things Eddie loved the most about him, and it was why he knew the second he stepped out of the worst storm LA had seen in years and into their apartment that something wasn’t right.

Because Richie’s coat wasn’t on the hook.

When they’d first moved in together, it wasn’t rare for this to be the case, and Eddie had had to housetrain Richie to some degree to get him to do things that made sense like leave his coat by the door and take off his shoes so he wouldn’t track mud through the house, but it was easy enough once Richie realised that the little things Eddie said to do were actually genius. He never forgot his coat, he didn’t have to clean the floor so much, and it meant that Eddie could relax without having to worry about Richie on top of himself. Eddie knew he was prone to overthinking and catastrophising, of taking one little thought and letting his brain race and race and race with it til it became a disaster so big he could barely breathe. Richie knew too. Which was why he always hung his coat on the door, and why Eddie was so worried that it wasn’t there. Richie’s shoes were by the door, and the soles were wet. He must have just got home.

That puzzled Eddie too. Richie worked from home. They had a shared calendar, he knew he didn’t have any plans today, and there was no way he’d spontaneously decided to take a walk in the freezing rain. So where had he been? What – or who – had he seen that distracted him so much he’d arrived home only minutes before Eddie and forgotten to take off his coat? _Was_ he even home?

“Richie?”

There was a clattering from the kitchen and a quiet “fuck”, and a moment later Richie appeared at the end of the hall, holding one of the fancy frying pans they’d received as a wedding present from Ben, and wearing his coat.

“Hey, baby! You’re home!”

Eddie took a moment to look over his husband. His hair was messed up. His cheeks were flushed like he’d been outside in the wind. There were faint spots of rain still drying on the shoulders of the ugly purple windcheater Eddie had bought him for Christmas after seeing him ogling it in an overpriced vintage thrift store, and his nose was red the way it always got when he’d been outside in the cold for too long.

“I’m making that chicken for dinner,” Richie said, shifting on his feet. “The one Mike made last time we caught up? With the tomato sauce and the cheese? I can make something different if you like, I’ve just got out the ingredients, sorry, you probably wanted something els-“

“You’re still wearing your coat.”

Richie rambled when he was uncomfortable. When he was lying. When he had something to hide. He always had. It was on the first page of the book of Richie’s Lying to You, Eddie, You Can’t Trust Anyone They Will Always Betray You.

Eddie’s mood darkened as Richie became even more antsy.

“You like this coat! You – you bought it for me! What, d’you not like it anymore Eds? Because if it said anything to you, lemme tell ya, I’ll get it. I will,” Richie said, frantically taking his arm out of one sleeve and pretending to punch it. “Take that, you bastard!”

“You’re deflecting.”

“Jesus, Eddie.”

Eddie felt his hackles rise. “You are! You’re deflecting!”

“Yeah, but fucking hell! Do you have to psychoanalyse me? Good ol’ Richie’s deflecting again, what’s fucking new!”

“I’m not _psychoanalysing_ you! I’m making an obvious statement!”

Richie rolled his eyes, and Eddie felt his insides boil. “Oh, great, then I guess thank you Captain Obvious! Look at you and your big fucking brain! You can read a person you’ve known all your life, good fucking job, just _look_ at your people skills!”

“Oh my fucking _God,_ Richie, you – you’re so – “

Richie turned on him. “So _what,_ Eddie?! So annoying? So insufferable? Great, you hit it on the fucking head again! Would you get off my fucking back?”

“You’re so fucking _predictable_! You get caught out lying and the very first fucking thing you do is put up all your walls and pull out all your cards trying to get it away, of course you do.”

He’d made Richie mad now, and Eddie knew it. He hated when people pointed out what he was doing, when people could see through the carefully constructed shields he put up around himself. “What the _fuck?_ You’re such a little asshole! Who are you to say you know anything about me?”

Eddie felt his face burn. He and Richie had only fought this badly a couple of times, and never so abruptly.

“Who am I? Oh, I don’t know, just your fucking husband? The person who loves you? The person who cleans up after you and combs your hair back when you’re sweating with nerves and kisses you goodnight and wakes up to you every morning? Unless, of course, the person you’re with when you’re with me isn’t really you at all, since apparently I don’t _know you!_ Which would mean either you’ve been bodysnatched or you’ve been lying to me this whole fucking time, Richie, so what is it? What is it? Why are you wearing your coat? Why are you lying to me?!”

Richie deflated in defeat, and Eddie felt a heavy weight settle in his gut. There was a silence, A long, painful silence.

“I… how did you know? I only told Bill, and he said he wouldn’t tell you.”

“ _Bill_ knows?! What the fuck?”

“I didn’t want you to find out, I swear. I didn’t mean to do it.”

‘Didn’t mean to do _what_? Fucking cheat on me?! Too fucking late for that, Richie!”

Richie freezes, then looks up at Eddie.

“Eds… what did you just say?”

“Don’t you fucking “Eds” me, Richie! I said you fucking cheated on me, you asshole! I’m not an idiot! I’m not a kid! I’m not stupid! You go out in the rain on your day off when you have nothing to do and you come home and you take off your shoes but you’re too distracted thinking about _whoever it was_ to take off your fucking coat, and then you go and make some fucking chicken parmigiana because you feel – you feel – you feel fucking guilty!”

Eddie is sobbing by the time he reaches the end of his speech. He still hasn’t put his work briefcase down, and he’s still clutching it when he sinks to his knees and doubles over. _Stupid, stupid, stupid_ he thinks. _Of course Richie couldn’t handle you for any longer than two years. You’re lucky you even got that. You’ve always been too much to love, you always have, so needy and fussy and particular, so infuriating. Impossible. Disgusting. Unlovable. Unlovable. Unlovable._

Eddie’s startled out of his rapidly spiralling thoughts by a hand on his shoulder. He flinches away, but Richie takes him in his arms anyway. He can’t resist the part of him that longs to seek comfort in Richie’s arms even as he curses it, and he leans his head into his husband’s chest. It’s shaking. Wracked with its own sobs.

“Hey, hey,” Richie shudders into Eddie’s hair, “I didn’t – I didn’t cheat on you, Eds.”

Eddie freezes in Richie’s arms, then leans back a touch, craning his head back to look at Richie’s face.

“You didn’t?”

He can barely see through the tears in his eyes, but when Richie reaches up a thumb and wipes some of the wetness away from his eyelashes he sees that his husband is making the worst face Eddie has ever seen, crumpled up like the exact cross between a smile and a sob had imploded. He laughs a little, thickly, looking into Eddie’s eyes.

“No, baby.”

“But then – but then why did you –“

“I broke your favourite mug.”

Eddie sags in his grip.

“I told Bill about it because I need to know if there were any of those pottery things they do for kids’ birthdays in this area of the city, so I could get you a new one. It wouldn’t be the same design as your old one, but I thought we could paint it together.”

Eddie tucks his head under Richie’s chin and takes a moment to think. Richie’s still wearing his coat. Richie isn’t cheating on him. Richie went out in the middle of the worst rainfall LA’s had in a decade to find Eddie a new mug because he broke the one Eddie had painted on a stupid company bonding retreat and got far too attached to.

He starts to shake.

“Oh my god, are you crying again? I’m sorry, I know you really liked it, I shouldn’t have just assumed I could replace it. I’ll do anything to fix this, I’m so sorry Eddie, baby, Eddie baby I’m so sorry –“

“No, you idiot, I’m laughing!”

Eddie tips his head back and cackles, full-body, the way only Richie can make him do. There’s snot on his face and hair in his eyes and he should feel disgusting, but instead his body is filled with the bright bursting light of relief. He laughs for longer than he cried, sitting there in Richie’s arms as his husband, who doesn’t quite get the joke, starts to smile too. Richie always laughed when Eddie laughed, even when he didn’t get the joke. Eddie loved him so much. He loved him _so_ much.

“Richie, I love you so much.”

Richie laughs again, sweeping Eddie’s hair out of his face and kissing him, snot lips and all.

“I love you too, you big fucking drama queen.”

He pulls his head away from Eddie’s a little and looks down at him, smiling teasingly.

“You wanna tell me what all that was about?”

Eddie huffs out a wry chuckle, standing up and pulling Richie with him.

“I forgot to take my meds yesterday. And I found out Andre’s been purposely fucking me over with incorrect client data to make me look like an idiot in front of Executive so he gets the promotion instead of me.”

“Ah, work drama. Gotta love it. I guess that would explain the lying thing.”

Eddie ducks his head and reaches out to smooth the jacket over Richie’s shoulders.

“Yeah. I’m sorry, though. That was way out of line.”

“It’s okay, baby, you were stressed.”

Eddie plants his hands on Richie’s shoulders, and lifts his head up to look him dead in the eyes.

“It wasn’t okay. Thank you for saying that, but it wasn’t. You deserve better than to be treated like that. I’m going to be better, okay? I’ll talk to Margaret about strategies for making sure my work life stays at work.”

Richie fixes him with a goofy little half-smile. His fond smile. Eddie won’t tell anyone, but it’s his favourite.

“Okay, Eddie Spaghetti. Thank you,” he grins. I love you.”

He steps forward a little and leans forward to plant a kiss on Eddie’s lips, sliding his hands along Eddie’s hips to his lower back and pulling him close. Eddie smiles and kisses him back.

“I love you too.”

“Besides, you know, I’ve only ever lied to you about one thing.”

“Really?”

Richie nods seriously, before taking a step back. If Eddie didn’t know better, he’d think Richie was tensing to run away. “Yeah, your mom just wasn’t that great of a lay.”

**Author's Note:**

> fuck editing and proofreading all my homies hate editing and proofreading.
> 
> hope u enjoyed! come be friends with me on clown town twitter, i'm @richiestoesir :^). 
> 
> as always, comments and kudos fuel me more than food or the blood of my enemies ever will! <3 <3 <3


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